York To Extend Utilities

YORK — The York Board of Supervisors on Wednesday gave its staff the go-ahead to design a water delivery system for the Dare area.

Municipal water service could come to the area in phases starting next spring and be completed by 2000, said John Dunn, the county's director of environmental services.

The Dare area is the lone area in which the county plans to install water and sewer lines simultaneously.

Dare ranks No. 1 on the county's priority lists for water and sewer extension projects being planned through 2002. The county is planning 22 water projects and 33 sewer projects.

Dunn told the supervisors a survey of the owners of the area's 570 parcels showed about 55 percent of their owners have tentatively agreed to connect to the water system.

Currently, the board has a policy of waiting until a combination of 65 percent of residents and 35 percent of vacant lot owners agree to hook up to water service before beginning such projects.

Unlike sewer connections, which are mandatory, homeowners have the option of connecting to water.

Getting both types of utilities means residents could get hit in the pocketbook harder than most.

Homeowners must pay a $2,500 hookup fee for sewer service. A water hookup will cost $2,850.

Dunn said area residents complained that they could not afford to pay both fees at one time.

So the county last year enacted a policy allowing Dare residents to defer paying for their water hookups for two years.

The question for supervisors was whether to allow the staff to begin engineering the water project despite not yet meeting the approval threshold among residents.

The supervisors said yes during their session Wedesday.

"Our experience has been that as you get to the project, more and more connect," said board chairman James Funk.

The Dare utility projects are the result of a countywide plan assembled in 1993 that calls for spending nearly $30 million on water and sewer projects.

The funding comes from residents' hookup fees and part of a 4 percent meals tax.

Utilities were deemed necessary, especially in such coastal areas as Dare and Seaford, where residents' septic systems are failing due to high groundwater tables.

In Dare, Dunn said, residents have complained of their wells producing foul-tasting water.

Dunn said the Dare water project would cost about $3.3 million. The sewer project estimate is $9.5 million.

The water system, once completed, would be turned over to Newport News Waterworks, from which most county residents buy water.

In other action, supervisors approved an increase in the per-ton disposal fee at the county's waste transfer station, from $37 to $38, effective July 1. The increase was necessary under the county's disposal contract with Browning-Ferris Industries, which calls for fees to be adjusted for inflation annually, officials said.